Louis Vuitton Act Eight - Match Racing

 Sometimes You Win,
  Sometimes You Lose

Sometimes you do both! Alinghi won Act 8 while losing in both flights Tuesday

Alinghi had not lost a match race all year, but K-Challenge stopped their streak at 31 consecutive wins, holding Alinghi to nine wins in Act 8.  Still, by virtue of their better record among the combined tied teams, Alinghi takes first place in Act 8.

ETNZ, BMW Oracle, and Luna Rossa also finished with nine wins.   Most importantly, by tying each other for the most wins in the Act, the "Big Three" added 11 points to their respective 2005 totals on the way to the Louis Vuitton Cup.  In terms of Act 8 standings, the tie-break rules give the nod to ETNZ and bump BMW Oracle down to 4th for the Act.

K-Challenge stepped up to beat Alinghi in Flight 10, but BMW Oracle also lost in Flight 10 to Luna Rossa to keep things tight at the top of the standings.  +39 finished strong adding two wins Tuesday, and Mascalzone kept  Victory out of 5th place with the Rascals' 3rd win of the regatta.

Thierry Peponnet, K-Challenge Skipper: "It is a great moment for us! It is not everyday that you beat Alinghi! They’ve controlled the game all year, but today we took our chances and we succeeded. We know that we can do well in these conditions, and it all came good for us. It seemed like every chance we took paid off, including our risky start against Spain."
 

Still the one. Alinghi leads the pack again in Act 8. Photo:©2005 Th.Martinez/Alinghi

Brad Butterworth commented on losing to K-Challenge: "Well no one likes losing, but it was a light air day and the conditions were tough. It shows you how well those teams can sail," the Alinghi tactician said.  "They did a good job through the jibe and were going quite fast. We weren't going that well and Thierry Peponnet sailed that race pretty well."

 Butterworth on losing to BMW Oracle: "BMW Oracle Racing did a great job and they sailed very well when it counted."
 

See also the detailed Act 8 chronological pairings
 

Don't look back!  K-Challenge trains against BMW Oracle before Act 8.  It seems to have paid off. Photo:©2005 Gilles Martin-Rage

Day 1:

Good day for K-Challenge: There was sun and wind for the first day of the Trapani Louis Vuitton Acts, the two most important ingredients for successful racing. Add in a big spectator fleet, plenty of crowds on shore in the America’s Cup Park and a few upsets on the race course, and the final regatta of the 2005 season is off to a grand start.

Read the summary at AmericasCup.com

Day 2:

Swell Stuff

The second flight of races for day 2 was postponed due to extreme conditions, but the first flight saw some close competition amid the visual spectacle of racing in serious wind and waves.

Shosholoza and Desafio get on the board with their first wins of the regatta.  Emirates Team New Zealand catches up as K-Challenge and Victory taste their first losses of Act 9.  BMW Oracle, Alinghi, and Luna Rossa roll on.  The battle for first place will be very interesting.  Headline races tomorrow: Alinghi vs. Luna Rossa and BMW vs. ETNZ.  First gun at 12:30pm, fireworks to follow....
 

Day 3:

Shosholoza beats Germany in Flight 4, and Mascalzone finds success.

Flight 5 battles: Alinghi over Luna Rossa,  ETNZ over BMW Oracle.  The standings get interesting...

Great Matches

On a beautiful day in Trapani, ETNZ versus BMW Oracle was a real thriller today.  Dickson won the start, Kiwis passed them downwind, BMWO beat them to the next windward mark, and the Kiwis nailed them again downwind, holding off a furious pursuit to win by three seconds.  The race puts ETNZ back in the hunt for an Act 8 overall win, if somebody can just beat Alinghi.

Big Day in Sicily

"The biggest waves I have ever driven the chase boat in. Going up alongside the yacht wasn't fun and more than a bit scary." -- Chase boat driver "Captain" Craig Christensen (NZL).

Indeed, it also brought to mind the conditions at San Diego in '92 when OneAustralia sank, and in '00 when Young America nearly sank, and the similarly rough day in San Diego in '95 when the keel on DC's Stars & Stripes partially pulled off the hull.

Paul "Flipper" Westlake (AUS), main trimmer on '76 today, said, "I copped a bit of flack from my teammates today about the last time we sailed AC yachts in these conditions, because I went for a swim and had to take a chase boat back to the dock." Flipper was main trimmer on OneAus.

Read more at the Oracle BMW Racing Blog

Captain Sarno, Shosholoza team leader: "I'm convinced that when we race against the Germans we have bad luck. In Valencia they passed us right before the finish line. Then in Malmö we broke the boom just before the start, and here we broke the spinnaker pole. So I thought we were in trouble again, but fortunately we held on to break the spell and get a point."
 

Mascalzone closes in on Desafio Espanol Sunday, but it was not enough.  The Spanish team won their third race of Act 8.  Photo:©2005 CupInfo

Day 4:

A Great Day at the Park

Another beautiful day greeted racers and fans as thousands crowded into America's Cup Park to watch exciting racing Sunday. The Flight 6 highlight was a close match between winner Desafío Español and Shosholoza. Flight 7 featured Alinghi battling back after suffering a broken mainsail halyard lock to beat Team Internet Germany.

K-Challenge put two more victories in the book, giving the French 5 wins in this Act - their highest total this year.

Read the summary at AmericasCup.com

Alinghi Still Leading

29 straight match race wins and counting.  Alinghi continues to roll, and threatens to win yet another regatta, which would not be too reassuring to the challengers.  But the Swiss winning machine will still have to get through Emirates Team New Zealand in Flight 9 tomorrow and BMW Oracle in the Flight 11, the last flight of Act 8.

K-Challenge is edging into the top of the standings, but still has Luna Rossa and Alinghi to face.

Victory has high hopes with their last three opponents having 4 wins between them in Act 8.
 

Spinnakers and Storm Clouds on Day 5  Photo:©2005 Gilles Martin-Raget

Day 5:

Alinghi Nabs ETNZ

Tough Weather Knocks out Boats

31 straight match race wins and counting, Alinghi beat ETNZ in a critical race Monday.  Now just K-Challenge and BMW Oracle stand between Alinghi and a sweep of Act 8.

BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa kept pace but Luna Rossa has already lost to Alinghi.  While they are still battling each other for the top challenger slot in Act 8, BMW Oracle has the best chance to knock Alinghi off the podium.  ETNZ took themselves out of the running for an Act 8 overall win with their loss today.

K-Challenge had a disappointing day, losing both races on mechanical failures.  South Africa was unable to raise their main against Alinghi.  Victory, on the other hand, now with the tie-breaker in hand, is settled into fifth place.

Tomorrow's Match of the Day:
 BMW Oracle vs. Alinghi

"Who ever wins the race, wins the regatta," says Peter Holmberg, provided Alinghi gets past K-Challenge.  "We think BMW Oracle Racing is going to be very tough, but we're feeling good about ourselves. The boat is going well, the crew is working together very well and having a good hard race like today is good to get us ready."

Day 6:

What a difference a day makes.  K-Challenge locked horns with Alinghi in a memorable battle, doing what no other team had done yet this year, winning a match race against the Swiss.  BMW Oracle also beat Alinghi, but on a day of close and exciting races BMWO's loss to Luna Rossa meant even K-Challenge's defeat of Alinghi in Flight 10 couldn't open the door for BMWO to win the Act.

Victory fell behind K-Challenge with a loss to Mascalzone.  +39 picked up two wins to finish in the middle of the pack.

Ed Baird, Alinghi helmsman, on today's bittersweet outcome, with two losses but an overall win:  "I can’t say it is the first time that has happened, because in match racing that’s how it works. But we’re pretty disappointed to lose to anybody, we believe in ourselves and we think we put a good race forward. We did the things that we wanted and we got beat, so congratulations to both of the other teams. They out sailed us today and that’s how it works in sport.”

Seconds Anyone?

From the BMW Oracle Racing Blog:

What's the difference between 1st and 4th?
Three seconds. Had we beaten ETNZ we would have finished 1st in this regatta, not 4th.

How do you break a four-way tie?
You consider only the matches between the tied yachts. As between the four of us, Alinghi and ETNZ won 2 and lost 1; BMWOR and Luna Rossa 1 win, 2 losses. The remaining tie between Alinghi and ETNZ is broken in favor of the winner of their match: Alinghi. Likewise the remaining tie between LR and BMWOR: Luna Rossa won our match. Hence: Alinghi 1st, ETNZ second, LR 3rd, and BMWOR 4th.

Read more at BMW Oracle Racing Blog